A New Strategy for L&D
What would motivate two individuals to come together to write a book on modernizing learning? Two people whose key roles in life have been intertwined in the art of learning design. We both love learning, and even more so, we both love helping people connect the dots to have their own aha moments. This book is for those like us who are passionate about helping people grow and are constantly expanding their own thinking and skills at doing so. We like living and exploring at the edge, and we hope our readers do too.
We, like many others, have been waiting for this moment in learning and development. Businesses are focused on L&D more than ever to upskill the workforce as roles change rapidly and become more complex. Employees and new hires are demanding learning and development opportunities. Plus, there are all the new ways L&D can create and facilitate high-quality capability building through technology. We’ve seen the training industry evolve from sage on the stage style to more democratic and learner-centered styles. Yet, we’ve noticed that L&D hasn’t quite made the leap into the modern digital age.
What’s holding us back? Is it cost or time? Or perhaps turf wars between L&D, HR, IT, or other internal silos?
We think it’s something more fundamental. We believe that L&D’s job is changing and to leverage this moment in time, L&D will have to shift strategies. We are confident that the strategies in this book will help the L&D industry emerge as a key contributor to the business’s success and as heroes to its employees. We also believe that it is you, our partners staying at the cutting-edge of L&D, who will make this happen.
The New Job of L&D
When we were challenged in 2015, to describe how to meet the needs of modern learners, we dug into learning research and uncovered the common L&D issues of the day. They all pointed toward a need for a fundamental change in what we see as our goal and how we get there. Our biggest insight was realizing that the instructional design industry was singularly focused on designing one thing—an L&D deliverable that would close the capability gap. It might take the form of a classroom training program, an e-learning course, learning program, or a manual, but it is still just one element. Of course, L&D often adds in a job aid or a link to additional content, but there isn’t enough strategic thinking behind such additions. Our traditional and current instructional design models—such as ADDIE, SAM, Agile, and even design thinking—all inherently assume that the job of L&D is to create a single main deliverable.
We learned other things we weren’t expecting. For example, the L&D industry is trying to meet today’s needs using antiquated models and tools. Sure, they’re great tools, but they’re also three and four decades old! Even the changes L&D has adopted more recently—like CD-ROM training, web-based and virtual training, and blended learning—are just incremental modifications when compared to the technology-driven changes occurring in the world around us. While we access technology at home as reflexively as taking a breath, learning at work is far more out of reach. We are living in the middle of a revolution of disruptive innovation, and L&D needs to be an integral part of that movement.
Slowly, we started to see a new answer take shape. Modern learners want to be able to choose how, when, and where they want and need to learn. Therefore, L&D’s new goal is to develop and deliver a learning cluster to replace the single-minded focus on one training deliverable per skill. A learning cluster is what we call it when L&D strategically designs and develops a set of learning assets to help learners gain a capability. This is what L&D needs to be able to do to level up for living, working, and learning in a digital world. It puts learning at a person’s fingertips in a high-quality, personalized way. We in L&D need to use the available technology, but we have to do it intentionally, choicefully, and systematically.
With this approach comes a new language and a new way to talk about the products L&D creates. We’ll deliver learning clusters instead of a class. We’ll design learning assets instead of a learning session. We’ll produce learning products that are available at various touchpoints for our learners, not just in the classroom or on the online training portal.
We shared this concept in workshops for several years. The learning cluster was very well received by participants, who then readily shared their own experiences as they developed learning clusters where they work. As usual, the teacher learns as much as the student.
The learning cluster evolved into the Owens-Kadakia Learning Cluster Design (OK-LCD) model. Designing for Modern Learning: Beyond ADDIE and SAM is a culmination of the knowledge we gained on this journey to provide a new strategy for L&D that works for modern learners and their businesses. We wrote it because we want to share our work with a broader audience. In this book, we’ll show you how the OK-LCD strategy, model, and tools enable designs using your learning content that work and are scalable for the exponentially changing future.
Your Road Map to the Book
There needs to be a model or plan to guide L&D. We’ve developed that plan—the Owens-Kadakia Learning Cluster Design model—and we describe its iterative process in the next nine chapters.
Chapter 1 explains why L&D needs to, as we say, “join the revolution.” It helps describe what training professionals rarely have the time to consider—what has shifted in our world and what that means for us in L&D. Chapter 2 introduces a high-level view of a strategic solution for L&D—the OK-LCD model. We share that the OK-LCD model is both a new way of thinking and a new way of doing. We also explain the new way of a thinking for L&D.
Then in chapters 3 through 7, we dig into the model and how it works—by going through each of the five L&D Actions that make up the model. We tell a common L&D story that continues throughout these chapters and features the perspective of business leaders, L&D professionals, and learners. The story reveals current and common frustrations, while showing how application of the OK-LCD model can make a difference. Then we explain what the Action is all about and provide details about how to do it using a tool we’ve created for each Action.
We’re also very proud of the “In Practice” sections featured in these chapters. These are real stories from real people who have adopted our model. We cover a diverse range of organizations, including the Gorilla Glue Company, Visa, and Bluescape. Not only are the results they’ve achieved incredible, but we know you’ll learn a lot from reading about the real-life process to get there.
We also gathered what we’ve learned and pulled together a start-to-finish fictional example, which you’ll see in chapter 8. It shows how each Action works together to create something bigger and shares the kinds of conversations L&D will have while implementing the OK-LCD model.
Finally, chapter 9 is about the future of L&D with the OK-LCD model. It describes the wins the telecommunications company Comcast has achieved by doing so much that aligns directly with the OK-LCD model. We also describe the barriers to getting to that future L&D state, and how to move through those barriers. We end the chapter by designing and presenting our own learning cluster for the OK-LCD model. Use it to guide your learning when, where, and however you want to learn.
You can read this book by starting at the beginning and reading through to the end, or you can choose your own path. Maybe you just want to read the first two chapters, then skim all the stories and examples. Or you might want to start with the tools at the end in the Appendix and then read the “The Action Implemented” sections, followed by the chapter 8 case study. Or maybe you prefer just reading the theory parts in chapters 1 and 2 and the “The Action Explained” sections in chapters 3–7. It’s up to you. The point is, we’ve modeled what we preach. You have the option to learn when, where, and how you want. The headings and layout is designed to help you easily navigate the book to find what interests you most. Or if you want to do a deep dive, go grab your coffee and get immersed!
But the end is not the end. Learning is an ongoing thing. Living at the edge of L&D lasts a lifetime. So, we provide an appendix with our current tools for the model’s five L&D Actions. And we provide support for bringing learning clusters to life through our ongoing work, which you can learn more about at LearningClusterDesign.com. There, we encourage you to join the community, get the latest templates, seek expert help for using the model, and share what you learn. When we write the next edition of the book, we hope to fill it with new stories and new insights from our readers as our model spreads and shapes the future of the L&D industry.
Welcome to Designing for Modern Learning: Beyond ADDIE and SAM. We’re glad to have you join us on this revolutionary journey!